


That’s what it means to be the most resilient

by thisisamadhouse



Series: Miscellaneous Missing Year [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Missing Year (Once Upon a Time)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 08:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13543752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisamadhouse/pseuds/thisisamadhouse
Summary: Where we find out that it’s not the best idea to put your heart back in your chest right from the dirty ground and that Shady Blue is really shady but she can be useful sometimes. (pre OQ)





	That’s what it means to be the most resilient

_Much later, when things had settled down and signs of danger had been warded off, many of the castle’s inhabitants would look back ironically on the fact that they had all worriedly held their breaths when the Evil Queen had fallen unconscious in the middle of an otherwise eventless lunch._

_The irony would only magnify in their memories as they’d recall that the first people by her side, calling her name in concerned voices and checking her over with gentle hands, had been the leader of the band of thieves- chased for years by the Queen’s Black Knights- and the Princess and her Charming husband who had suffered her wrath and still called her family._

It is quite something to see a Queen sink to the ground, especially one they all have so many mixed feelings about. Their opinions being divided between the hate they feel for the dangerous, blood-thirsty woman who terrorized their beloved Princess -and anyone who dared to help her-, and the reluctant gratitude they experience as they remember that, in her attempt to forfeit their happy endings, she actually brought them to a fairer world where royals and peasants mingled as the former were put to work, and the latter finally had a chance at better lives.

The gratitude mostly won out as they watched the Thief and the Prince reach out at the same time to carry the Queen out of the crowded Hall, and the ensuing staring contest that only the unusually sharp voice of their teary-eyed Princess was able to break. Robin Hood took advantage of the Prince’s momentary distraction and gathered the fallen woman cautiously in his arms, exiting swiftly away from prying eyes. 

No one ever thought they would one day wait anxiously for news on the most controversial woman in all the realms, and if some people tried to maintain the illusion that they were only here to know when they would have to put on their best clothes for the funeral, well, they were indulged, but certainly not believed.

_Much later, when he would be certain that she was alright, that this illness which threatened her life has been drained and cured, Robin Hood might question the instinct that propelled him out of his chair and by her side when he saw the Queen, Regina as he dared call her in her presence only a handful of times, rise from her seat, a troubled expression on her beautiful face, a lithe pale hand clutching at her chest, before collapsing without a sound._

As he crossed the distance separating them, he tried to guess what caused this, and he recalled the few times he caught her with a pained grimace, hands fisted, or trying to hide the flush and sweat provoked by what he realised was an intermittent fever. He recalled pallor, dark circles under her eyes, untouched meals, and days where the Princess herself had to drag her out of bed, and he cursed under his breath when all the pieces created quite the worrisome picture.

She didn’t respond to their call of her name, and the only thing that reassured them was the fact that she didn’t seem to have hurt her head on her way down. Robin’s arms bumped against the Prince’s in their hurry to take her out of there, and the outlaw narrowed his eyes at the former shepherd, silently ordering him to back off.

It was strange, this visceral need to feel her against him, to be sure that her heart was still beating, that it wasn’t too late. Words from the Princess that he didn’t hear, and probably didn’t care much about, pulled the other man’s attention away, and Robin didn’t wait one more second to lift the Queen from the floor and into his embrace.

He was aware of the people following them but he didn’t slow down. A twist of fate placed his and his men’s quarters closer than any of the rest, and he didn’t ponder one moment before heading to his own chambers and laying the still figure on his bed. He stepped back to let one of the dwarves, named Doc if he remembered correctly, and the Widow Lucas examine her. He told them about his observations of her symptoms and the troubled look they exchanged caused something to painfully twist in his gut.

They checked her left arm, where the flying monkey had deeply scratched her, but the bandage and the wounds underneath were clean. Snow had forced her to have it taken care off at the time and Robin saw how relieved the Princess was when the tension in her shoulders released for a moment.

“An infection of the heart?” Doc voiced out, at last.

“But how would she have acquired it?” Granny replied, turning her head to the side when the Princess gasped suddenly.

“When we first arrived, just before the flying monkey attacked us, she was…” Snow White stopped, darting her eyes towards her stepmother hesitantly.

“Talk, girl. Now is not the time to worry about keeping secrets, not if you want us to help her,” Granny urged, and if they found the tone harsh no one called her out on it.

“She was burying her heart in the woods, and when I tried to make her see that it wasn’t what Henry would have wanted, she put it back in just like that. I didn’t think that…” The Princess trailed off, shrugging helplessly.

Doc and Granny exchanged dark looks, their lips pinched at the thought of both the blatant manipulation and the notion that with the infection in the Queen’s arm, even her magic could have ignored one slower to take root.

“It’s called a pericarditis, when the sac around the heart is inflamed or infected. In Storybrooke, it would have been treated easily with heavy doses of antibiotics, and most certainly some surgical drainage, but here, with no equipments and the increased risk of sepsis, we’re going to have to be creative,” Doc explained.

“Maybe,” David started slowly, “Maybe, the Blue Fairy could help. If I understand what you’re saying, you need to clean her heart, but the usual ways would worsen the situation, right?”

Both Granny and Doc nodded.

“So, if someone with magic took out her heart and cleaned it…” He stopped talking as both his wife and Robin winced at the thought.

Doc, however, considered the suggestion thoughtfully. “It might work but I don’t know if she is capable of doing that. I always believed only practitioners of dark magic were able to rip hearts out.”

Snow bit her bottom lip. “And she might not want to do it anyway. Regina and Blue have never really seen eye to eye.”

Granny snorted. “Understatement of the year. Well, you’re just going to have to ask nicely, girl, and hope that your fairy godmother doesn’t demand payment like the Dark One does.”

Robin looked between them all before settling his eyes on the inert woman on his bed. He wasn’t sure he understood everything that was at play here, but he was glad that there were some people who were willing to save Regina.

She started whimpering then, and Robin noticed the flush was back.

“She is feverish again,” he stated, and Granny immediately jumped into action, ordering the men out, and enlisting Snow’s help to make the Queen more comfortable.

In the hours that followed, Robin stayed by her side, wiping her brow, trying to discern what her mutterings meant while Snow White and her husband negotiated with the Blue Fairy.

His men and Roland came by, his boy immediately taking the cloth from his father’s hands to gently cool Regina’s burning forehead.

Robin had to turn away from the soft, concerned expression on his son’s face with his little brows furrowed, and he focused on what his men had to say about the rest of the castle’s reactions to the Queen’s illness.

As his men talked, he wondered not for the first time if letting his son near the Queen had been a good decision. His boy had already lost his mother and he had gotten attached to the monarch surprisingly quickly. Robin didn’t want to imagine Roland’s reaction if she was to pass away. He wasn’t even sure what his own reaction would be.

The complexity of his feelings for the dark-haired sorceress was an intricate mess he didn’t feel ready to dwell on when her future was so uncertain. It was probably cowardly of him but his mind was already drifting to another time where he had been in a similar situation, and despite all his efforts the outcome had been gruesome. He didn’t want to go through that again.

It was just after his men left with Roland that Regina came to for the first time, but he didn’t have time to assess how she felt because the princely couple entered the room accompanied by the Blue Fairy, Doc and Granny.

“Blue accepted to do it, she thinks it will work,” the young brunette announced, a tentative smile on her lips that only grew when she saw that Regina was awake.

“What’s going on?” the Queen asked, her glazed eyes looking from Snow to Robin with uncertainty.

“We’re going to cure this infection, Regina. You’ll be alright in no time,” Snow explained, her voice full of hope, but Robin didn’t think any of it registered in Regina’s febrile mind. She had noticed the fairy slowly approaching her, and she clutched the thin linen covering her apprehensively.

“What are you doing? What’s going on? Daniel, what are they doing?” Regina screamed, drawing her knees against her chest.

Robin looked at her, confused, and he turned to the others, wondering if any of them could make sense of the Queen’s delirium. The Princess had gone deathly pale, her husband seemed close to choking on his own saliva, Granny had an expression full of pity, the Fairy was indifferent, only Doc looked as confused as he felt.

He felt Regina grab his hands before she burrowed herself against his chest. 

“Daniel, please tell them to leave me alone,” she whispered, now clutching at his shirt just above his heart.

He swallowed with difficulty as he understood what was going on. “They’re trying to help you, Regina. You’re suffering from a grave condition, and the Blue Fairy can cure you,” he soothed but she shook her head.

“The fairies never come when I call them. It’s a trick, Daniel, it’s  _her_ , it has to be,” she mumbled, her voice weakening with every word. Robin couldn’t help but look up at Blue, and he swore she seemed guilty for a moment.

“Do you trust me, Regina?” he whispered in her ear, hating himself for doing this.

She nodded her head.

“Then believe me when I say these people are here to help.”

She raised her head and put her cheek against his. “Will you stay with me?”

“Of course, I will,” was his instant and heartfelt reply.

Blue was on the other side of the bed by that time. Her presence so near made Robin uneasy, and he tightened his embrace around Regina’s frail form.

“Will it hurt?” She asked, and she sounded so young and innocent that Robin felt something break inside him.

The Fairy’s blank expression softened a bit. “It will, but not for long,” she replied. 

“May I?” She asked, approaching her hand to the Queen’s chest.

Regina closed her eyes and nodded.

Her pained gasp when the Fairy’s hand broke through skin and bones to clutch around her heart sent shivers running down Robin’s spine.

The organ was finally pulled out, and Robin was fascinated by the amount of colours surrounding it, the red core, the strings of black, and a yellow white substance leaking from it.

“You will have to clean inside too,” Doc reminded the Fairy as she slowly turned the heart in her hands, making the foreign substance disappear.

Robin remained tensed as long as Blue held the beating organ, trying to control the impulse that made him want to take it away from her.

Regina’s eyes were fixated on it, but Robin couldn’t read her. He wasn’t even sure of what she was really aware at this point. She shuddered violently when the Fairy finished cleansing her heart and started purging the remain of the infection from inside her chest.

At last, the battered organ was put back in its rightful place, and Robin breathed more easily.

“I’m tired,” Regina whispered, causing Robin to smile.

“Rest my Queen, you need to build back your strength,” he replied as he helped her settle back down. She was fast asleep before her head even hit the pillows.

“My work here is done,” Blue declared, frowning as she observed intently the unlikely couple before her.

“Is it true what she said?” Snow asked, her first words since the whole process began. “That the fairies never came when she called them?”

Blue stayed silent for a while, her lips a thin line. “We cannot help everyone,” she answered.

“Not even little girls terrorized by their own mother who want to escape that life?” Snow insisted in a murmur.

“Not that little girl,” the Fairy replied.

“Because of Cora?” David took over for his wife. “I thought good always overcome evil.”

“In the end it does, but like in any fight there are casualties, you both know that,” Blue sounded offended to be questioned in a such a way.

“So Regina was a casualty? She had to pay for her mother’s sins?” It was the first time Robin had ever heard Snow sound angry.

“Her fate wasn’t in my hands. There was nothing to be done to save her from that life, and she made her own choices, do not blame me for them,” the Fairy said in a clipped tone.

“She asked for help and no one came, just like every other times. We all played our part in this, didn’t we?” Snow’s question was rhetorical, but Blue’s hackles were raised.

“Listen, Princess, I am not responsible for what this woman has become and you would do well to remember that I stood by your side when you fought against her, you didn’t seem too interested in saving a little girl then,” she stated haughtily before flying out of the room.

Robin observed the contrite looks on the others’ faces and then focused back on Regina. He felt as if things had shifted today, as if they had realised how many grey areas there were in their once black and white world. He simply hoped it would last when Regina would feel better.

* * *

_Much later when she wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed by the fact that she woke up with a little boy curled up by her side, said boy’s father sitting close and absent-mindedly playing with a strand of her hair, she would take some time to wonder why her feverish mind had confused the Prince of Thieves himself with her long lost love._

She would wonder why his embrace made her feel safe, why he was the only one she believed she could turn to when everything else seemed threatening and scary.

Much later she would ponder on all those things, but in this moment, with Roland clutching her nightgown in his little fist, and Robin smiling down at her as if her being awake was the eighth Wonder of the World, she couldn’t find it in her to care.

She would probably ruin her reputation as the Evil Queen, but if this man, who had seen her battered, bruised, and blackened heart, hadn’t fled away screaming, then maybe there was more to him than a smelly bandit with an attitude.

It was ridiculous, most certainly hopeless because she was who she was, and even after having Henry, she had never known how to love very well, and she would ruin everything as always, but what if this could be it? This chance at happiness Snow had claimed Henry would want for her.

She would consider it for a while as she recovered, as she would slowly make her way back to meals in the common Hall, as she would be saluted by the castle’s inhabitants, and asked about her health by people genuinely interested in the answer.

She would consider what this life would be like, not being hated and being free to show her affections to the people she cared most about without fear.

  
When she would finally be ready to take the plunge, there would be another attack lead by her greenish sister, and she would be reminded why she had always been weary to let people close. No matter what, she always lost them and it was better for everyone if they stayed away.

So she would wrap herself in black once more, and focus on getting rid of the nuisance called Zelena, and if she would catch Robin’s disappointed eyes sometimes, she wouldn’t say a thing, and keep her sorrow for the dead of night when pillows could muffle her sobs and brush her tears away.


End file.
